Deulti

This is my first report of our shoot(& I’m barely just 2 shoot old), so, here goes(with lots of excitement)…..

Well, the whole idea was concieved by our Admin. Abhijeet Da…. & trust me it was so well planned (or was it??)…. He briefed us before the day that we are planning for a grand Deulti trip…. Ah, Deulti, a outskirt trip far far away from the city(though everyone of the group was calling for cloudscapes, I personally named this trip as City-scape).

So according to the brief, we all gathered under the “Baro-Ghori” (The Big Clock) at the Howrah station…. I was the first one to reach, then came Ritesh Da with his sturdy black tripod(through out the day, he kept loosing his black thingy & I collected it everytime)… Then came the old-faces Arghya Da & Diptish Da…. Then Proyajit Da & Somdutta Di….& later we found that our admin. Abhijeet Da(who was constantly kept telling me that he is crossing the Howrah bridge for around 30 min.s) came at the mere end…..with all the guys pooring in(Shan Da, Amitava Da, Ratnajit Da, Samujjwal Da, Suman Da Miyanka Di, Banisree Di, Mriganka Da Subham Da and two new guys…one of them was Bibudha) and the clock striking 12:00….. We thought we are missing the train & went on to catch it….. And this was a new experience also, the Midnapore local was jam packed with weekend returners, pilgrims (going to the Tarokeswar temple)…. But we squeezed in to the train…. And after one or two min.s…. We were By-Bying Howrah station with full enthusiasm….. But soon, it ended for a while….. When we had to stop for 12 min.s on some station…. This delayed our shoot heavily….. Then after all the lagging(& emptying others’ water bottles which was not on the brief given by Abhijit Da), we finally reached Deulti…. After 2hrs. & 15min.s of chitchatting (by the rest of us), leg-pulling (mostly done by Sumanta Da, Priyajit Da) and some heavy addas (enjoyed by Shan Da, Amitava Da, Ratnajit Da, Diptish Da, Mriganka Da & Arghya Da)…. On the station, we gathered for the “group pic” session (which is basically done at the end of the shoot) with Deulti Board in the background….. Ratnajit Da & Sumanata Da took it with much experimented angles and lots of discussions…… Then all of us carried our-selves out of the station & after crossing the National Highway 6…. We walked to the famous (or in-famous??) NIRALA Resort… Where we got to fill up our tummies with Mangsho Bhaat (Chicken Meal) & Dim Bhaat (Egg Meal) while Debdeep Da joined in after we finished our lunch….. The food part was really good with Double Egg-ed Curry & Chicken curry, Mung Daal, Deep fried potato chips, traditionally cooked “ Aaloo Posto”, Chatni on the menu… Some of us (read Samujjwal da) planning to find a real nice tree with shadow & fine breeze hovering for the Bauty-nap….. Then finishing all the lunch episode…. We hired three vans and went on for the famous writer/novelist Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s house near Rupnarayan…. This was kind of a moment where we were meeting a part of our glorious past…. We took some 30min.s to savour the moment with clicking and witnessing all part of the house…… At this time Supratik Da (sporting his brand new hair style) joined in with a new experience of travelling alone this far….. We, then went to find the bank of Rupnarayan & on the way there we find a place where so many of the villagers were gathered (this was mainly because it was the day of the worshipping day of Goddess Shitala which we bangalis calls Mahotsav) to watch Gaajon (a musical drama of Lord Shiva and Parvati & Goddess Shitala) and do the prior preparations (which is done at the end of our shoot & captured by us thoroughly)…. Ratnajit Da and Amitava Da went on the terrace of a school building to have some nice shots and the rest of us were clicking the childrens playing on the ground….. We finished “clicking the innocents” theme and then went for the big thing, yes, I told myself, “Beta, bahut din baad tum asli nadi dekhoge…. Taiyar ho jao”….. And what a sight…. Rupnarayan was flaunting all that he was saving for ages to show us…. Some of us were so deeply touched…. That we just sit on the bank and enjoyed it fully for a while….. Then came the bachcha party…. Some kids were following us to persuade us to click their images…. We found the sky blank so innstead of Cloud-scape…. We subjected those kids and went on clicking….. This took the rest of our times while we watched the sun go down with colors….. It was around 6:45…. We boarded our hired vans and returned to the station while singing, showcasing, savouring what we collected (much more than we expected) from this trip…… We reached the station, boarded the train and devided into small groups…. While we discussed trekking trips….. We also had Bhooter Galpo…. and then, the show-stealer was Supratik Da’s fine account of a perfectly executed brief of his, Mriganka Da & company’s experience of Basontotsav…… While we never noticed that our train has already entered the Howrah station.

This was a perfect PICNIC spirited outing one can have with the KWS member. Ii would like to go back (and for that matter, we all would like to go back) for KWS, Photography and Adda to refuel our lost souls.